Five Questions with Dan Slater

Dan Slater is the first vice chair of the state Democratic Party, and he plays a huge role in keeping Democrats informed online through his blog Dem Notes, which has evolved over the years from its original format as an e-mail newsletter.

Slater took time today to answer a few questions about Dem Notes, the evolution of blogging in Colorado, and where Denver stands in its efforts to attract the 2008 Democratic National Convention.CoCo: You just celebrated the three-year anniversary of Dem Notes. Why do you think it has been so successful in reaching out to Democrats?

I appreciate the assumption in the question that DemNotes has been successful; whether that’s accurate or not, I’ll let others decide. I do think, though, that there are a couple of things that have helped DemNotes over that time period.

First, I have tried to keep an open mind about change. Changing from an e-mail newsletter to a web-based blog was a huge jump, but I think it worked out well. More important than the technical aspects, though, I think Democrats just want to know what is going on in their party. We tend to be very segmented in our work as volunteers for the Party

OUR MISSION

The Colorado Independent has been amplifying the voices of vulnerable Coloradans and holding public officials to account since 2013. Starting in the fall of 2020, we will be teaming up with the Colorado Press Association and Colorado Media Project as part of COLab, an incubator for journalists to collaborate at a time when news resources are scarce. Our primary role will be to work one-on-one with journalists in newsrooms statewide to help them report challenging stories they couldn’t cover alone.

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OUR MISSION

The Colorado Independent has been amplifying the voices of vulnerable Coloradans and holding public officials to account since 2013. Starting in the fall of 2020, we will be teaming up with the Colorado Press Association and Colorado Media Project as part of COLab, an incubator for journalists to collaborate at a time when news resources are scarce. Our primary role will be to work one-on-one with journalists in newsrooms statewide to help them report challenging stories they couldn’t cover alone.